Fig. 1

Global summary of stratigraphic evidence for Last Interglacial sea-level instability in coral-reef deposits and coastal-sediment sequences. Blue dot is the location of Hanish Sill, the constraining point for the Red Sea sea-level record. Red squares with white centres are stratigraphically superimposed coral reef or sedimentary archives for sea-level oscillations within the Last Interglacial (LIG). Solid red dots are locations where sea-level oscillations are inferred but where there is no stratigraphic superposition. The underlying map is of the difference between maximum Last Interglacial (LIG) relative sea level (RSL) values for glacio-isostatic adjustment (GIA) modelling results based on two contrasting ice models (ICE-1 and ICE-3) for the penultimate glaciation using Earth model E1 (VM1-like set up). The ICE-1 model is a version of the ICE-5G ice history (LGM-like), whereas ICE-3 has both reduced total ice volume relative to ICE-1, and a different ice-mass distribution (i.e., a smaller North American Ice Sheet complex and larger Eurasian Ice Sheet) that is consistent with glaciological reconstructions of the penultimate glacial period⁴